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How did the PPI scandal start?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will surely have heard about the PPI scandal. You may have even looked into your own financial history to see if you have been paying for a policy.

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) has been sold alongside credit cards, loans and mortgages since the Nineties. It is designed to cover your payments should you lose your job or fall ill, and can – on occasion – be a valuable and useful product to some customers.

The trouble is, many major high street banks were selling PPI to customers who didn’t need it, or would never be able to claim. In the worst cases, banks and other lenders outright lied to customers by telling them it was compulsory or just added it anyway without consent.

Over the past few years, the mis-selling scandal has become fully apparent. Thousands of Brits have launched complaints against banks and other companies, claiming back billions of pounds.

But just how did the PPI scandal start?

Almost 20 years ago in 1998, consumer magazine Which? raised the issue of PPI being a poor value, expensive product. However, it wasn’t until 2005 that the scandal started to come to light when Citizens Advice launched a “super complaint” on PPI mis-selling.

As a result, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) took over the regulation of general insurance sales, and the PPI scandal came under the glare of the media.

In 2006, the FSA began imposing fines for PPI mis-selling to mortgage companies and banking services. And in 2007, the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) quickly referred PPI to the Competition Commission.

2011 is another significant year in the PPI scandal timeline. It was the year when the banks finally surrendered and admitted defeat. They confirmed they would not be appealing against the court ruling that ordered them to contact customers offering compensation. The British Banker’s Association (BBA) had previously argued the ruling would force them to apply new standards to past sales that were made before new guidelines were introduced.

That year, Lloyds Bank announced that it had set aside £3.2bn to settle compensation claims. Barclays also confirmed it has earmarked £1bn for the same cause, proving how significant the scandal was.

Since then, the scandal has gained momentum, and – according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – a whopping £26.7 billion[1] has been paid out in mis-sold PPI claims to 12 million customers since the start of 2011.

And, to add another significant date to the timeline, the deadline for claims has now been set for August 2019. Anyone wishing to pursue a claim needs to take action over the next two years to ensure they receive compensation.

I still haven’t claimed for PPI, and I think I may have been mis-sold a policy. What do I do?

If you think that you may have been mis-sold PPI, you could claim back some of your money. This holds true even if you no longer have the required documentation, so don’t let that hold you back.

The team at First Target Recoveries specialise in mis-sold PPI policies and claims. We have helped over 65,000 people like you claim back their PPI compensation since we launched in 2011. We also have a wealth of experience in handling all aspects of the claim, easing stress for claimants.

Get in touch via our online form or call us on 0800 023 4953 to find out more and get your claim off the ground before the deadline.